Nimble Storage announces settlement with NetApp Nimble Storage (NMBL) announced that it has entered into a written settlement agreement with NetApp (NTAP), effective March 16, that resolves all remaining claims in the parties' outstanding litigation matters. Beginning in October 2013, NetApp initiated litigation against Nimble. The first was a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, trade secret misappropriation, and unfair competition, among other claims. The second was a lawsuit filed in May 2014 in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara alleging similar claims, including trade secret and breach of contract. The terms of the settlement are confidential and are not material to Nimble's financial statements. Both cases were formally dismissed with prejudice by the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California and Santa Clara County Superior Court on March 23.

EMC downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper JaffrayPiper Jaffray downgraded EMC (EMC) to Neutral to Neutral saying the company is facing increasing pressure from next-gen storage vendors and public cloud providers. Piper notes that it continues to hear Pure Storage and other vendors such as Nimble Storage (NMBL) are making inroads into the installed base of EMC. It cut its price target for shares to $27 from $30. The firm also downgraded NetApp (NTAP) to Neutral this morning for similar reasons, but says EMC has a more defensible position than NetApp.